


The more you know...

by justAleks



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Aang Learns How Zuko Got The Scar (Avatar), Aang was not expecting THAT, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Let Toph Say Fuck, Misunderstandings, Ozai (Avatar) Being a Terrible Parent, Protective Aang, Zuko (Avatar) Gets a Hug, Zuko (Avatar) Needs a Hug, Zuko's Scar (Avatar)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-18
Updated: 2020-08-18
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:16:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25974286
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justAleks/pseuds/justAleks
Summary: Aang is unwilling to spar with Zuko, during his firebending training. He would be unwilling to blast fire at any living creature but blasting it at a person with such a visible scar was just beyond his capabilities. His assuming the scar was a result of an accident during a firebending training definitely did not help. The truth, however, is so much worse.
Relationships: Aang & Katara (Avatar), Aang & Sokka (Avatar), Aang & Toph Beifong, Aang & Zuko (Avatar), background Toph Beifong & Zuko
Comments: 17
Kudos: 718





	The more you know...

Sleep was good, warm, and safe. Free of any pressure of the awake world. Sleep was a bliss and cotton-candy sweet dreams. Or maybe flying fishopotamuses and wild races on their backs. Or even pants-free Fire Lords, although these particular dreams tended to take darker turns half the time...

Regardless, sleep definitely was not supposed to be something pointy repeatedly digging into his side. 

Aang woke up with a snort, sprawled urchin starfish style on his bedding, with one foot resting on Sokka’s back, and opened bleary eyes to peek at whatever was poking him. 

He saw a foot clad in a pointy, black, and golden shoe that should not be here at the inhumanly early hour when the world was still grey and sleepy. Aang looked up to see to whom it was attached, steadfastly ignoring the fact he had only one person to point as the owner. 

Aang believed in miracles, especially those born from hope, stubbornness, and the power of manifested will.

Sadly, those miracles tended to not happen.

Zuko glared at the air nomad, his arms crossed against his chest and the scarred eye squinted so much just a sliver of gold was visible. At the sight of Aang's sleep clouded but otherwise opened eyes the glare intensified. 

Before Zuko managed to take a breath in and open his mouth, Aang closed his eyes and snored extra loudly. Zuko’s toes poked at his side with increased ferocity nailing a particularly ticklish spot in their quest to rouse him. Aang wriggled, huffed a laugh, and curled into a ball, trying to get away from the incessant poking. 

“Get up, the sun will rise soon” Zuko whispered, mindful to not wake up Aang's friends sprawled around them. Momo, who did wake up, either because of Aang or Zuko’s arrival, chittered and climbed the prickly firebender to wrap himself around his neck giving the boy a chance to atone for rousing the lemur. Aang smiled at the sight of a grumpy Zuko and blissed-out Momo nuzzling under the prince’s chin. 

“Five more minutes?” He tried to haggle some more time but Zuko just frowned harder.

“Do you want to learn firebending or not?”

Aang winced at the question and pressed his lips together to stop the “no” rising in his throat. Zuko absentmindedly scritched Momo under his chin.

"Aang. Meditation is the key, the sun's warmth gives life and power to firebenders meditating to its rising face is part of the culture not to mention that meditating with the sun or candles or any source of heat is a _must_ . Breath control is crucial. You seem unable to sit still to save your life and your firebending still lacks any fluidity when it comes to combat. _Get_ . _Up_." He rattled off on one breath, voice raspy with irritation and lisp oddly prominent.

"Okay, okay. I'm up." Aang let a gust of wind rise him from the blanket. He bowed to Zuko as a proper greeting which was returned by his teacher. He felt proud not to call him hotman. Zuko did not recognize the lack of it. The older boy looked him up and down, squinted as if assessing the probability of Aang just flopping back onto his bedding and foregoing the morning practice for more sleep (Aang tried not to take offense at the glaring lack of trust here) and, after deeming him awake enough, Zuko didn’t wait much more as he turned and marched towards the patio they used to learn firebending on. Momo remained as a scarf around his neck. Aang stretched, looked longingly at the blanket cooling on the floor, his friends happily snoring away around and followed his prickly sifu.

They reached the patio in silence and in silence they sat down, faces up towards the sun, eyes closed against the rays to start their morning ritual. Momo moved from Zuko’s neck to his lap and curled happily there. The firebender just sighed, patted his head, and let himself be used as a cushion. The sun was starting to peek over the forest stretching over the hill in front of their cliff. 

Aang steadied his breathing and focused on the warmth gently touching his face. 

All things considered, meditating was actually the most pleasant part of learning to firebend. Sitting in the sun, breathing in the crisp air, and focusing on the chi coursing through his body was oddly relaxing, even when he started noticing how his chi strained towards the rising sun. The feeling was weird, a gentle tug towards the warmth above, but when he settled into it, Aang found it to be almost pleasant. 

Zuko’s assurance that it is only natural and in no time Aang should be able to feel his chi moving towards any fire, calling for it, made the young airbender curious. 

Zuko’s claim that when he will master the element, feeling chi of other firebenders will be more than possible for him, made the boy rethink that curiosity. 

What soured the overall pleasant meditations they always started with, was the actual firebending. Zuko drilled him through katas and katas until Aang could perform them without a hitch in his step and that, still, was fine. Zuko’s teaching style landed itself somewhere between Katara's reassurances and gentle hands correcting his stances and Toph’s brutal and unapologetic sessions that always ended with Aang sore and exhausted. 

Zuko was snappy but always mindful not to crush Aang’s spirit. He never pushed Aang to do more than he could and was surprisingly accepting of his hang-ups regarding the fire. If Aang was starting to stress over not getting something right Zuko would change the set of katas or sit down to meditate some more. 

Those were almost fun, but Aang was apparently quick to learn the basics and Zuko was starting to teach him not only how to produce the flames and how to go from one stance to another but how to actually incorporate it all into _fighting_. 

No amount of second-guessing and pleading that Aang was yet to master this or that kata and he absolutely should not try and shoot fire at his teacher was deterring Zuko from standing in front of Aang and demanding to be firebended at. He encouraged him, goaded him, tried anything to cajole his young pupil into a fight. Aang tried, he really did, but the urge to extinguish his flames seconds before throwing a punch was stronger than anything Zuko did to persuade him. Not even promises of shorter lessons. Zuko was becoming increasingly irritated and at a loss on what to do to the point where he decided to ignore Aang’s runarounds and started to just push through with their training. The only reason he was yet to flat out attack the boy was the threat of Katara’s rage. 

Zuko was starting to consider ignoring that too.

Aang wanted to open a tunnel under his feet and go live with badgermoles. 

His mind focused on the oncoming session without any consent from the young air nomad and the reassuring warmth on his face suddenly reminded him of the warmth of flames dancing on his palms and casting a similarly gentle warmth on his cheeks if he put his arms too close. Aang twitched, felt his chi coil with the stress building up inside him, and twitched some more to dissipate the tension. 

The warmth was still caressing his face and Aang became aware of it touching his shoulder and warming his whole body. His chi was torn between twitching to the rhythm of his stress and straining towards the sun. Everything became a tangible reminder that in just a few minutes Zuko will demand Aang throw fire at him. 

Throw fire at a man, no, a _boy_ — Zuko was not that much older than Aang, supplied his mind ever so helpfully — whose face bore a huge burn scar. A scar that stretched from the side of his nose, across his forever squinted eye and ended over a mangled ear. A scar that was old and had to come from a _firebending_ accident. 

Aang was yet to figure out if his sight and hearing were impaired and, at this point, was too afraid to actually try to do it.

The boy kept on fidgeting. No amount of assurance from dragons that fire was the provider of life could stop him from blanching at the very real thought of burning somebody. Katara’s scream was a painful reminder of how easy it was to lose control over the element. Looking at Zuko’s face moments before blasting fire at him was even more successful at stopping Aang in his tracks and extinguishing his flames. 

“Okay, this is not working. Aang, get up. Let’s start a quick warm-up and we will try sparring since you are so twitchy.” Aang’s eyes shot open and the boy barely stopped himself from face planting into the earth like an ostrich mole to avoid the unavoidable. He already thought himself into a rabbit mouse hole of all the ways their practice could end up with Zuko acquiring even more scarring. He needed time to at least shut down the tiny voice in his head spinning all the ways he could lose control of his fire. His teacher ignored Aang’s sudden intake of breath with worrying ease and shooed Momo from his lap. The lemur chattered at him, probably railing at this injustice but got distracted by a bug flying past his ear. Both boys watched Momo chasing the bug around the patio for a moment until he skittered back inside the temple. Aang mourned the loss of his most reliable source of distraction. 

“You said that meditation is crucial!” he shot at Zuko’s stretching back. 

“It is and you were quite successful for the first half an hour but now it is essentially useless, you are twitching worse than a squirrel hare on cactus juice. Up!” Zuko turned towards him and Aang had no option other than to stand up and follow his sifu’s movements through the warm-up katas.

No fire yet, aside from the stray sparks from Zuko’s mouth when he was hurrying him up. 

Okay, he could do this. He had to learn how to firebend at some point this summer. Fire Lord Ozai had to be stopped and to achieve that Aang had to master all four elements. He will just avoid looking at Zuko’s face. Yes, that sounded like a good plan. He just has to embrace Ran and Saw’s wise words and imagine that he is definitely not aiming fire at a boy with half of his face melted in a firebending accident that was most probably a training session too. Probably with a more experienced firebender. 

Aang was definitely _not_ experienced.

Oh spirits, he was going to melt Zuko into a puddle like a candle. Last time he made himself shoot fire at the prince he singed the boy’s tunic. Burning him into a crisp was not that far off.

“Do we have to?” definitely not a whine slipped past his lips on Aang’s exhale as he was effortlessly stepping into another form. It should not be the reason for moving onto actual fighting. Zuko frowned, his scarred eye almost closed and Aang could not look away. 

“Do what? Warm-up? It’s just a few more katas, Aang.”

“Practice. Do we have to spar? Can’t I just… blast fire at a statue? Or a dummy? Or wind?” he trudged on and Zuko stopped mid-move, with his feet in a horse stance, firmly rooted to the ground, and arms half-raised in confusion. 

“...Why? Fire Lord will not stand in one place and wait for you to fire, you have to learn how to aim at a moving target.” Aang’s skin crawled at the word “target”, his peace-loving nature squirmed at the very thought of firing at any living creature with the objective to hurt. Fire Lord Ozai might be a monster with a human face but it did not stop him from accounting as a living creature… more or less. With a dummy bearing a caricature of the Lord’s face, he could at the very least imagine firing at him while ignoring the probable outcome of flesh meeting fire. After all, he was their great enemy. 

Zuko, on the other hand, was no longer a threat, and words “target”, “fire” and “shoot” put in one sentence along with his name sat wrong with Aang on principle. The scar just added to the heavy feeling. Then a thought occurred to him.

“... Can I ask Toph to put you in earth armor? Or Katara to cover you with water?” Zuko’s confusion only rose with Aang’s ramblings. 

“I can’t move covered in rocks and water will just kill off my flames?” It came out more like a question. Zuko was visibly trying to understand what was happening in front of his eyes as Aang started flailing his arms as if to bat his response away. 

"So maybe we can take a break and Sokka will make you an armor? He made one for Appa — it was super cool, had this neat arrow-like shield behind which somebody could sit on his head. Maybe Sokka can build in swords to your arm guards?" Aang rambled on, adding to Zukko's utter confusion. The older boy started looking increasingly concerned the more Aang flailed.

"What? No. I don't need any armor. Built-in swords are a terrible idea and, more importantly, we don't even have enough time to do it not to mention money-!"

"Toph is good at scamming!"

"And I’m at stealing, this does not change the fact we have to focus on your bending, not on some ridiculous pet projects-!"

“But you won’t get burned with the protection!” Aang flailed one last time before freezing. He did not mean to say that out loud. Zuko goggled at him.

" _What_?" Aang was starting to question if the face Zuko pulled at him was perplexed or angry. The scar was screwing with his facial expressions and Aang had a hard time to decide if his slip up was bad or horrible.

Zuko tensed and forced himself to take a few deep breaths before even attempting to open his mouth.

“Do not even _try_ to patronize me!” Deep breaths only fed the sparks coming out of his mouth.

“What!?” It was Aang’s time to get confused.

“You may be the avatar but there is no way you can burn me, not for now at least. Don’t you dare go easy on me! I may not be as good as Azula or Father or Uncle, but spirits damn it, I am not that _weak_!”

“This is not- I did not- Just no!” Aang suddenly felt like they had two very different conversations. His flailing resumed with additional vigor. “Let’s start again, Zuko,” he asked amicably. Zuko huffed smoke but shifted his stance into something less guarded. Aang also straightened himself up. They stared at each other for a moment, lost for words. Zuko recovered first.

“Is that why you don’t want to spar with me? You think you will burn me?” asked the prince, voice gruff but at least ready to explain the misunderstanding.

“ _Yes_ , but it is not that I think you are _weak_! It’s just that,” Aang involuntarily looked at Zuko’s scar and quickly averted his gaze. “Accidents happen, Zuko. I know they do, Katara can attest to that and I do not want it to happen again.” Zuko frowned at him. 

“I thought you got over that. Ran and Shaw seemed to make you understand that fire does not equal immediate annihilation. You even got good at _producing_ flames.”

 _Yes, but now I am facing a person with a horrible burn scar on his face and you expect me to shoot fire at him._ Aang did not say but was close.

“But producing flames to shoot at air and producing flames to shoot at somebody else are two very different things,” he said instead. 

“You will have to shoot at Ozai.”

“I _know_! But accidents during training- and- stuff...” Aang really just wanted to look Zuko in the eyes but his gaze got stuck on the left side of his face as his voice died down. It got his point across a bit too well. Zuko’s glare intensified but then turned into puzzlement as Aang’s stuttered hang-up fully registered. The air nomad felt his face heat up.

“Aang, what- how do you think I got my scar?” This time no sparks were flying out of the prince’s mouth. He looked absolutely flabbergasted and Aang’s answer just added to it.

“Training accident while learning firebending? We always assumed that, I mean at first, we didn’t even think much about your face. It just added to the overall dangerous air you had, but then we started guessing. Not that we wanted to pry into your privacy! We were just curious and sometimes bored and- well, we thought that one of your training sessions went spectacularly bad. I mean badly bad. Yeah, being burned cannot be spectacular. And if that was under the eye of a tutor fit to teach a prince… Zuko, I do not want to melt you like a candle!” Aang shut himself up and stared at Zuko who stared back. The silence stretching between them was so perfect Aang could hear his friends bustling to life in the background.

“... You don’t know?” Aang was not expecting Zuko to deflate, for his voice to become so soft and lost that it immediately stopped all his flailing. 

The world around them stopped for a moment, suddenly thrown from the expected road of flailing, and awkwardness and probably a dose of hurt pride into a lost, confused path of sudden hurt and guilt, and shame that flashed across Zuko’s face. So many more emotions swirled in the boy’s eyes that Aang felt the exact same drop of his stomach as when he was five and one of the other kids pushed him off a cliff to teach him how to glide through the air. The monks lived through a collective heart attack when they realized what happened but Aang instinctively latched onto his staff and bent the air around him to fly up. Now, his instincts were dead silent. 

“Wha-” He tried to ask but another voice interrupted them. Zuko’s face closed quicker than the blink of an eye. Suddenly all emotions vanished, replaced by a paper-white mask.

“What we don’t know? Are you done with your jerkbending? Did I miss some nice ass-kicking? You don’t look sweaty at all…” Sokka waltzed into the patio stretching his arms above his head and looked from his friend to his… ally? To the teacher of his friend? To their ex-pain-in-the-ass? Sokka was tempted to call him their pet firebender but Toph was still working on taming the twitchy prince. It took him a moment to realize that something was definitely off. Aang shot him a panicked glance just as Zuko squared his shoulders and turned towards the archway Sokka just passed through. The boy stopped in his track, pinned by the molten fire in the prince’s eyes. The one perpetually squinted looked inhuman.

Aang had a feeling that something _important_ just got interrupted. For a moment Zuko looked like he wanted to say something but Sokka's appearance shut his mouth quicker than one could blink. Zuko shook his head like he needed to clear his thoughts. He looked agitated. The moment was irrevocably lost.

“We are done for today.” Zuko stormed past Sokka, the water tribe boy moved out of his way on pure instinct. The firebender looked like a komodo rhino ready to stamp over whoever blocked his path. 

“What did you _do_ to him?” Sokka stage whispered while pointing a thumb at the retreating back of their resident firebender. Even from where he stood, Aang could clearly see how tense Zuko was and how even tenser he got after Sokka’s query. Aang’s uncertainty regarding Zuko’s hearing twisted itself into a question mark. 

He shot Sokka, a somewhat betrayed look.

“What?” 

Aang sighed. “I think I pissed him off, or maybe made uncomfortable? It’s hard to read him.” Sokka hummed in agreement. 

“Well, you don’t go poking an already angry polar bear dog in the rump. Come, Katara made breakfast.” Sokka patted him on the shoulder and moved towards the archway. 

“But Zuko...”

“Do _not_ poke an angry polar bear dog in the rump! Give him time to calm down and then try to talk if you want to do it so badly.” Aang followed his friend wringing his hands together. Leaving Zuko was not sitting right with him but Sokka was probably right. Trying to talk to Zuko now would make him even more irritated. He hoped that a good breakfast would help cheer the boy up. 

When they walked back, all the blankets were already stored away. Katara was making jook over the fire, Toph was sitting next to her scratching Momo behind ears. Teo had The Duke on his lap as the boy was still dozing and Haru was coming with their bowls in hands. 

Aang looked around but couldn’t locate Zuko. Toph, on the other hand, had no problem locating him. She scooped Momo up, the lemur chittered irritated that another human dared to stop the scrit-scratching but shut up once he got unceremoniously dumped on The Duke, the child was happy to wake up to an armful of a lemur hungry for cuddles. The girl stomped towards Aang with furrowed brows. 

“Hey, Twinkletoes,” she greeted him, putting herself between Sokka and Aang. The older boy kept on walking whereas the airbender got stopped by a tug on his robes. He looked at Toph, but the blind girl just led him away from Katara to plonk down onto the ground with all the grace and force of a boulder. She patted the space next to her and Aang lowered himself much more gently. 

“So tell me, did you threaten Zuko to go full Avatar State on him?” Toph’s voice was pitched low enough that only Aang could hear her. A part of him was overjoyed that Toph apparently decided to resocialize Zuko and befriend him and cared about their prickly bender. The other part, much louder, became concerned with her words.

“What!? _No_. Why?” Toph patted his knee with the force of a landslide to soothe him, her next words, however, made him want to rocket into Zuko’s room and see if the boy was okay.

“While he was stamping away to his room his heart was going crazy. Even crazier than it usually goes.” 

"What?"

"Yeah, you were the last person to talk to him. Well, Sokka might have been as well, but I doubt it," Aang made a weak but affirming sound, Toph patted his knee again. "And I was wondering what could you possibly have done to throw him so much off the kilter. I've been trying very hard to loosen him up around us, Twinkletoes. It seemed to be working and here I am today, waking up to an angry firebender stomp." Her knee pats grew in strength as she was talking. Aang looked around once more, naively hoping to see Zuko stomping back. Even the joy at witnessing Toph's protectiveness did nothing to tamper down the pit of vague guilt and worry opening in his chest. He tried to keep his voice down as words came pouring out from his mouth. Zuko seemed to like Toph alright (or he had a working self-preservation instinct and wouldn’t dare stop Toph from befriending him) and Toph certainly liked the prickly bender, she would help Aang to reconcile with him, right?

"We had a misunderstanding, I told him our assumptions regarding his scar and he went all rigid afterward. Before we could talk it out Sokka interrupted us and Zuko carried out his angry stomp." He almost slapped Toph when he flailed to make the last point. The girl patted his knee once more, this time with less force.

"So Sokka _does_ have a part in it! He sure has a knack for… setting things into motion." The surprised wonder in Toph's voice felt grossly misplaced. She then remembered her panicking friend and resumed the patting of Aang's knee. "Breath, Twinkletoes, breathe. Zuko is wound up tighter than a coiled viper eel, it was just a matter of time for him to explode, though I was expecting less silent fuming and more setting things on fire." Aang groaned.

“I did not expect to be the reason for this!” He was a pacifist, a monk, he liked Zuko, he even trusted Zuko. How on earth it was him who ignited Zuko’s explosion.

“Me neither, I was actually betting on Katara snapping at him one too many times.” The boy groaned at the unprompted honesty.

“So what do I do now?”

“Wait him out. He certainly didn’t sound like someone who wants any prodding company.” Aang suddenly felt as if Toph already rehearsed the whole conversation with Sokka.

“I wouldn’t prod.”

“Sure, Twinkletoes.” Toph’s last pat to his knee shook his bones. She rolled back to her feet and walked towards Katara, demanding food. Aang sat for a moment longer mulling over the advice and decided to give it a shot. 

Maybe Zuko will be more cooperative over dinner. He had another training session, this time with Katara, to keep his mind away from fixating over Zuko and deciding to launch himself into his room and try to immediately resolve the problem. 

Patience was a virtue, after all...

The waterbedning training, soothed Aang’s frayed nerves but the dim gnawing of unspecified guilt persisted. He felt like he was missing a vital piece regarding their misunderstanding. It had to do with Zuko’s scar. Was the shame of having an accident that big? Kuzon was always talking about honor, maybe having a permanent mark of such an accident was somehow shameful?

The flow of the water was a familiar movement, fluid and calm and it gave him time to mull over their conversation. Now, without all the panicking and flailing the confused emotions were turning into curiosity. Aang pushed a wave towards Katara, which he easily pulled to her and pushed with twice as much strength. Aang had to dig in his heels to not let the power of the wave topple him over.

“Something’s on your mind?” Katara’s bent the water into two tentacles and used them to swat at Aang. 

“Um,” the boy stuttered, mentioning Zuko was not going to end well. But Katara had already talked heart to heart with the prince. Aang quickly made some mental gymnastics to decide if questioning Katara about Zuko was worthwhile, a tentacle tried to wrap around his ankle and unbalance him.

“I might have said something… that ticked Zuko off.”

“Did he attack you!?” Katara’s tentacles grew icy hooks. Yup, it was the wrong thing to say.

“No! Quite on the contrary actually… he stomped off and now refuses to be seen.” Aang made his own tentacles to aid himself in flailing. Katara generously melted off her hooks and swatted at Aang’s flying water appendages. 

“That’s why he skipped breakfast?” The boy nodded. “And that’s why you are so distracted?” Another nod. Katara frowned. “Personally I’m happy, you have my official blessing to keep ticking Zuko off. But stop being distracted — _that_ I do not bless.” She managed to slap at Aang's forehead. A few drops of water rolled down his nose tickling him mercilessly. 

“Um, I have to say no to the blessing.” He dodged another tentacle swipe. “He is my teacher, after all, a comfortable atmosphere is a key to gaining knowledge.” Aang jumped over another tentacle and got flung back by a third one that materialized from nowhere. Katara’s smug expression reminded him who was the master waterbender here. A master waterbender who apparently was still bitter about being bested by a child. Aang remained on the floor flat on his back with eyes glued to the sky.

"I was wondering…" Aang stalled, reminding Katara about the cave incident was not a good idea. But the curiosity nipping at his consciousness was persistent. Katara confessed she almost tried to heal Zuko's scar. "I was wondering if Zuko ever told you about his accident." Water audibly bubbled. Aang flattened himself even more.

" _No_." The air nomad knew when a conversation was over, so he scraped himself from the floor and took up a defensive stance. The barrage of water tentacle swipes he had to counter and the fact that only a few tendrils managed to make contact cheered Katara right up.

When she bowed to him at the end of their training, Aang was richer not with the knowledge about Zuko but how to best apply water tentacles for both attack and defense.

The waterbender went to start preparing something to eat. He followed her to their bedroom/kitchen/dining room pavilion to drink some water and wait for Zuko to emerge for lunch. His earthbending session with Toph, or rather his survival training, was supposed to start later in the day. Katara waved him to start the fire and Aang purely out of habit went to find their sparking rocks. At the sight of Katara’s raised eyebrow, he stopped in his tracks.

“Oh, right. Firebending. I can make a fire.” 

“Sure you can! C’mon, Twinkletoes, make some sparks and off we go.” Aang didn’t have time to get embarrassed as confusion quickly became his main feeling. He stared as Toph dragged Haru towards him. The older boy looked apologetically at Aang. 

“What?”

“I feel like having a spar during midday not evening. Any problem?” Her smile showed too many teeth to be humanly possible. Aang looked at the stack of wood waiting to be lit up. 

“But lunch?” He tried but Toph waved her arm dismissively. 

“Can wait, we have enough time to wrap up our training while it is still warm.” 

“Come on, Aang.” It took Haru impressively quick to learn not to oppose Toph. Aang was still working on this particular instinct.

He punched out a quick burst of fire under the twigs and followed the two earthbenders outside. 

“Are we going to spar all together?” Toph’s tigerdillo sharp smile made Aang want to launch himself off the nearest cliff and glide far away. 

He loved Toph but it did not stop the healthy dose of fear creeping up on him from time to time.

Haru looked both intimidated and excited to be fighting arm to arm with the best earthbender in history. 

Aang was going to _die_. 

Aang really should consider going back to Makapu Village and start apprenticeship under Aunt Wu’s wings, as his predictions had the nasty habit of being correct most of the time.

He didn’t have time to think about Zuko, he didn't even have time to _think_ , period. 

Toph’s mad cackle at chucking at him rocks after rocks, sprinkled with boulder for a flavor in between, was still ringing in his ears when Haru helped him scrape himself from the ground Aang sunk in, to avoid getting squished in to a pulp by a joined forces of two earthbenders. The fight with Bumi was a breeze compared to that. Aang felt the rumbling still reverberating in his bones as Haru dusted him off with firm pats, that almost made the airbender topple over.

His stomach grumbled and was answered by Haru’s. The Duke chose this moment to scale the rocks making up an impromptu ring around the trio. 

“Do you want to eat, or can Sokka devour your portions? Cuz he’s been eyeing them for a while now. And I think Katara is starting to consider a riot. You are super late.” The child slid down onto the ground and put on his best ‘I am dealing with brats’ pose. Aang coughed to mask the coo that almost escaped his throat. 

“Yeah, no. We are coming.” Haru scooped him up and placed The Duke on his shoulders. 

“Next time Sokka tries to eat my food tell him to fu-”

“Toph!” Aang tripped over his own feet. 

“-dge off” The girl smiled. And stomped to clear their path. “Or else I will absolutely annihilate his ass.” Aang groaned while The Duke giggled.

“Twinkletoes, he knows worse words than “a-”

“Toph!” 

“That is true, though” The Duke patted absentmindedly Haru’s head and twisted back to better see Aang. The boy smiled at him albeit a bit strained.

“It does not mean you have to use them or hear them.” The Duke’s face said that Aang had no idea what he was talking about but didn’t comment further.

“Couldn’t you take any longer!?” Katara snapped at them the moment the group was within hearing range. 

“We could.” Toph plonked down and made grabby hands at the waterbender blissfully unaware of the scathing glare. Or, more probably, happily taking advantage of being able to ignore its existence.

Aang looked around readying himself to have the talk with Zuko.

Zuko was not there.

He frowned at Toph. Toph smiled at him, oozing smugness the same way a catgator oozes complacency after eating something big.

Aang realized it was all planned.

“Come and eat, Twinkletoes.” She patted the ground beside her. Aang huffed and sat on her other side. Toph snickered. 

Katara shoved two bowls in their hands and stalked toward Haru who was yet to let go of The Duke. Katara’s irritation fizzled out at the sight of the boy being gently put down. 

“He talked to you?” Aang really tried not to sound betrayed.

“I talked to him.” He _really_ tried not to feel betrayed. “Said to keep you occupied cuz he has to think some things through. That he will talk to you but needs _time_.” 

Aang looked into his vegetable stew.

“Is he mad at me?” 

“Nope.”

“But he was angry!”

“Yup.”

“... are you enjoying yourself?”

“Absolutely.” Toph shoved a spoonful into her mouth and started chewing. Aang decided to follow her lead. 

“Don’t worry Twinkletoes, he just sounded like he didn’t know how to proceed. Give him time to prepare a speech or two and you will have your talk. Zuko is like a boarcupine, you poke him and he bites back. Give him space and he will come to you, eventually.” Aang sighed.

“Okay, thanks Toph.”

He didn’t see Zuko for the rest of the day and this time Aang tried to distract himself from thinking too much about the firebender. Toph’s words helped to further calm his conscience, but he could not stop himself from looking out for Zuko when he as much as noticed a flash of red or black in his peripheral vision. 

To give his hands something to do Aang went to brush out Appa, the bison was more than happy to be pampered by his favorite human and noone could hear him mutter all the ways he could apologize for bringing attention to Zuko’s traumatizing training accident. The bison even made a great point that suggesting he can buy Zuko a mask, maybe even a Blue Dragon mask was as insensitive as it could get. Aang would be lost without Appa.

When evening rolled around and they started preparing for dinner Aang helped Katara chop vegetables then busied himself with their fire pit and finally got swallowed by earth when he passed Toph one too many times.

“Twinkletoes, _sit down_.”

“I want to apologize to Zuko, but he is still not here.” Toph let the earth spit him out. The Duke was giggling at them, Katara shot him a curious look and Sokka chortled loud enough that his sister realized he finally deigned them with his presence. The gleam in her eyes immediately told him, he should have stalled a bit longer.

“Aang, relax, _spirits_ , and when Zuko does shambles back to us let the man speak before you steamroll him.” Aang sat down next to her and tucked his knees to his chest with a huff. 

He watched as his friends prepared for dinner. Katara was stirring the stew, Sokka got wrangled into preparing the rice. The fire was crackling happily and was becoming brighter with each passing second as the world around them was darkening, the sun was slowly setting down. 

When most of the group was already settled around the fire and waiting for Katara to portion their meal Aang barely stopped himself from wriggling in anticipation. Only Teo and Zuko were missing and Katara, still irritated by the lunch situation, grabbed their bowls without waiting any longer. 

“Why is everybody straggling today?” She asked when they heard Teo’s wheels rattling towards them. Aang perked up beside Toph but a well-aimed elbow immediately set him in place.

“Sorry, Zuko was showing me the air balloon. They really made it firebender-fuelled.” The boy tried for a sheepish look but missed by a mile. At least Zuko looked appropriately chastised. 

“Sorry.” He muttered and looked around them. Upon seeing Aang sitting next to Toph, the prince followed Teo. Aang deflated a bit but another pointy elbow shut him up.

Throughout the dinner, Zuko resolutely did not look in their direction and listened to Teo’s excited ramble. Sokka, who was sitting close to them, interjected from time to time. Aang couldn’t hear them very well but picked up enough to know it was something about reconstructing the old air balloon design. Zuko looked appropriately overwhelmed. 

The dinner could not end up fast enough for Aang. He didn’t even feel wat he was shoveling inside his mouth and after what felt like, hours, their bowls were empty and a lazy chatter filled the air as everybody tried to talk with everybody. Thought the familiar chaos Aang finally caught Zuko’s gaze. The prince looked tense but he nodded his head signaling Aang to follow him. The air nomad almost flew after the retreating boy. The moment Sokka tried to ask where they are going Toph distracted the group.

Zuko walked towards their training patio.

“So, do you seriously don’t know how I got my scar?” He started without much preamble. His back was painfully tense and Aang had to swallow back words brimming to spill out. He remembered what Toph said.

_Do not steamroll him._

“I only have some suspicions.”

“That it was a training accident, yes?” Aang just nodded his head, he felt nervousness wrap around his belly, the previous curiosity withered down. Zuko was too tense for it to be anything as simple as an accident. “Is this why you are so stressed you will accidentally burn me? Because you think that something like this-,” Zuko pointed at his face, his eyes devoid of any emotion, voice terrifyingly hollow, “-something like this can be a training accident?”

Aang nodded.

The prince took a long breath. 

“Well, no. This is a deliberate attempt at mutilating someone,” He spat, bitterly. Aang felt like he punched him.

“Oh-”

“It was my father.” Zuko pressed on, his voice wavered but the boy straightened his back — so tense it looked ready to snap any moment — and looked Aang straight into the eyes. In the soft darkness surrounding them, the scar looked deep red. Aang felt his blood run cold.

“He cradled my face in his hand and set it on fire. He pressed his palm into my eye and burned me with surgical precision. It was both a punishment and a display of his power. He chose my insubordination to signal that noone can oppose the Fire Lord, not even his good-for-nothing son. A _child_ .” Zuko’s voice cracked and Aang failed to register the moment he made his way into Zuko’s personal space to hug him. He wrapped his arms around the rigid with tension, so rigid he was trembling, prince, and pressed his face into Zuko’s shoulder. He didn’t know what to say, what to _do_ . Spirits, they were so _wrong_.

“Aang, you could have never burned me, not during training. _Never_ during training.” his voice was muffled, choked with emotions. His hands were curled into impossibly tight fists at his sides. Aang felt Zuko’s ribcage expand with his breath and a gust of hot air brushed past his head on Zuko’s exhale. “You have to learn how to fight. Because Ozai has to go down.” Aang shut his eyes so strong, whole galaxies exploded behind his eyelids. 

“And I will. Zuko, I will. Spirits…” He breathed, hugging the barely older boy with so much force he could imagine hearing his bones grind together. Zuko exhaled and sagged against him. 

Slowly, painfully slowly he put his hands on Aang’s back. “Good.” He breathed, so silently Aang barely heard him. 

They stood like that for a moment, the world silent around them, the darkness shielding them in its gentle embrace. Two boys, one still trying to process cruelty noone should be subjected to, the other still too shellshocked to fully grasp it. 

At that moment, Aang felt he couldn’t hate Fire Lord Ozai any more fiercly.

“... And besides, firebenders are more resistant to flames than other people. At best you will give me some reddened maybe tender skin. Anything more will heal in no time, even without Katara’s help, and won’t leave any marks. You’d need to make some serious effort to leave me with a scar.” Zuko added, still trying to make Aang understand that training _accidents_ couldn’t end as horribly as intentional bending. His lisp was making the words painfully mournful.

Oh, spirits. Aang felt he could access the Avatar State by looking at Ozai alone, locked chakras be damned.

**Author's Note:**

> It was supposed to be between 1-2k, but the fic gained consciousness of its own and just kept growing.  
> I couldn't bring myself to cut it down.  
> you can also read this on my [tumblr](https://polska-tankietka.tumblr.com/post/626800314737147904/the-more-you-know-the-heavier-your-heart-gets)


End file.
